New Chinese envoy pays courtesy calls on Cambodian leaders

17:07, August 01, 2013

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- New Ambassador of China to Cambodia Bu Jianguo on Thursday paid a courtesy call on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and pledged to further enhance the bilateral relations and cooperation.

"Under my diplomatic mission, I will try to do all my best to further promote bilateral ties between our two countries," Bu spoke to the premier.

She reiterated that China would continue to support Cambodia in all circumstances in order to help this country towards development and better living conditions for its people.

Bu also conveyed best wishes from Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to Hun Sen.

In addition, she congratulated to Hun Sen for the victory of the Cambodian People's Party in the Sunday election, expressing her confidence that under Hun Sen's leadership, Cambodia would continue to prosper in all fields.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen said he was very satisfied with excellent Cambodia-China ties and believed that the relations would continue to grow stronger and stronger from day to day.

He also thanked China for providing a great deal of aid to Cambodia for social and economic development.

Earlier in the day, Bu also paid a courtesy call on President of the National Assembly Heng Samrin.

Samrin said China is playing a very important role in developing Cambodia in all fields, adding that Cambodia is very pleased to see good ties with China in politics, economics, social affairs, education, health, and military.

"Besides providing a great amount of aid to Cambodia, China has invested in various sectors in Cambodia, especially in the sectors of hydropower dams, garment industry, and banking," he said. "In the past decade, China is the largest aid provider to Cambodia for road and bridge development."

Bu replaced ex-Ambassador Pan Guangxue, whose three-year diplomatic mission in Cambodia came to an end in June.

She presented her credentials to His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, the King of Cambodia, on July 19.

Cambodia-China ties reached the top level of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation in December, 2010.

According to Cambodian finance ministry, China is one of the top providers of development assistance to Cambodia. Chinese loans and grants to Cambodia have amounted to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars from 1992 to present.

China is also the top investor in Cambodia. According to the figures of the Council for Development of Cambodia, from 1994 to 2012, total Chinese investment in Cambodia has reached 9.17 billion U.S. dollars.

On the trade side, China is one of the leading trading partners for Cambodia. Last year, the bilateral trade volume accounted for 2.9 billion U.S. dollars and was expected to reach 5 billion U.S. dollars by 2017.